Comics and Videogames
This book offers the first comprehensive study of the many interfaces shaping the relationship between comics and videogames. It combines in-depth conceptual reflection with a rich selection of paradigmatic case studies from contemporary media culture.
The editors have gathered a distinguished group of international scholars working at the interstices of comics studies and game studies to explore two interrelated areas of inquiry: The first part of the book focuses on hybrid medialities and experimental aesthetics between comics and videogames; the second part zooms in on how comics and videogames function as transmedia expansions within an increasingly convergent and participatory media culture. The individual chapters address synergies and intersections between comics and videogames via a diverse set of case studies ranging from independent and experimental projects via popular franchises from the corporate worlds of DC and Marvel to the more playful forms of media mix prominent in Japan.
Offering an innovative intervention into a number of salient issues in current media culture, Comics and Videogames will be of interest to scholars and students of comics studies, game studies, popular culture studies, transmedia studies, and visual culture studies.
Andreas Rauscher is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Siegen, Germany. He is the author of Das Phnomen Star Trek [The Star Trek Phenomenon] (2003), Spielerische Fiktionen: Transmediale Genrekonzepte in Videospielen [Ludic Fictions: Transmedial Genre Concepts in Videogames] (2012), and Star Wars: 100 Seiten [Star Wars: 100 Pages] (2019).
Daniel Stein is Professor of North American Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Siegen, Germany. He is the author of Music Is My Life: Louis Armstrong, Autobiography, and American Jazz (2012), co-editor of From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels (2013/2015), and one of the editors of Anglia: Journal of English Philology.
Jan-Nol Thon is Professor of Media Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Guest Professor of Media Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany, and Professorial Fellow at the University for the Creative Arts, UK. He has published widely in comics studies, game studies, and media studies.
Routledge Advances in Game Studies
Fans and Videogames
Histories, Fandom, Archives
Edited by Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey and Angela Ndalianis
Identity and Play in Interactive Digital Media
Ergodic Ontogeny
Sara M. Cole
Videogames, Identity and Digital Subjectivity
Rob Gallagher
Evolutionary Psychology and Digital Games
Digital Hunter-Gatherers
Edited by Johannes Breuer, Daniel Pietschmann, Benny Liebold, and Benjamin P. Lange
The Playful Undead and Video Games
Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay
Edited by Stephen J. Webley and Peter Zackariasson
Hybrid spaces
Crossing Boundaries in Game Design, Players Identities and Play Spaces
Edited by Adriana de Souza e Silva and Ragan Glover-Rijkse
Forms and Functions of Endings in Narrative Digital Games
Michelle Herte
Independent Videogames
Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics
Edited by Paolo Ruffino
Comics and Videogames
From Hybrid Medialities to Transmedia Expansions
Edited by Andreas Rauscher, Daniel Stein, and Jan-Nol Thon
Comics and Videogames
From Hybrid Medialities to Transmedia Expansions
Edited by
Andreas Rauscher Daniel Stein Jan-Nol Thon
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2021 selection and editorial matter, Andreas Rauscher, Daniel Stein, and Jan-Nol Thon; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Andreas Rauscher, Daniel Stein, and Jan-Nol Thon to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
The Open Access publication of this book was assisted by generous funding from the Volkswagen Foundation (www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en).
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 9780367474195 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781003035466 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
Andreas Rauscher, Daniel Stein, and Jan-Nol Thon
PART I
Hybrid medialities
Nicolas Labarre
Carman Ng
Daniel Merlin Goodbrey
Hans-Joachim Backe
Nina Eckhoff-Heindl
Tim Glaser
Claudius Stemmler
PART II
Transmedia expansions
Dominik Mieth
Robert Alan Brookey and Nan Zhang
James Fleury
William Uricchio
Joleen Blom
Josefa Much
Susana Tosca
Hans-Joachim Backe is Associate Professor at the Center for Computer Games Research of the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He holds an MA degree and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Saarland University, Saarbrcken, Germany. He was chairperson of the ICLA Research Committee on Comparative Literature in the Digital Age and is a member of both the German Association for Comics Studies (ComFor) and the Comics Studies Research Group in the German Society for Media Studies (GfM). He has published extensively on self-referentiality and discourses of alterity in videogames and comics, as well as on ecocriticism, narrative theory, and media theory. Website: www.hajobacke.com/.
Joleen Blom is a lecturer at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and a lecturer at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. She holds a BA degree in Japanese Studies, an MA degree in Media and Performance Studies, and a PhD in Game Studies. During her PhD, she contributed to the
